Ranjan Agarwal of Collectedge on Building a Compliance-First Collections Platform, Scalable Recoveries, and the Future of India’s Credit Infrastructure

StartupTalky presents Recap'25, a series of exclusive interviews where we connect with founders and industry leaders to reflect on their journey in 2025 and discuss their vision for the future.

In this edition of Recap’25, StartupTalky speaks with Mr. Ranjan Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of Collectedge, who reflects on a year shaped by rapid evolution in India’s credit and collections ecosystem. Agarwal shares how Collectedge strengthened its position as a full-stack, compliance-first receivables and collections platform - bringing structure, transparency, and accountability to an industry long marked by fragmentation. He discusses the expansion of Collectedge’s capabilities across call-based recoveries, nationwide field operations, litigation support, and multi-channel digital communication, alongside the growing role of data, automation, and AI in driving ethical, scalable recoveries. Ranjan also highlights shifting lender expectations around visibility and compliance, the challenges of maintaining consistent execution at scale, and the significant opportunities ahead in BNPL, SME credit, and B2B receivables as Collectedge enters 2026 focused on disciplined growth, operational rigor, and responsible recovery infrastructure.

StartupTalky: What service does Collectedge provide? What was the motivation/vision with which you started? 

Ranjan Agarwal: Collectedge is a full-stack receivables and collections management platform that enables lenders and businesses to manage their entire collections lifecycle — from early reminders to field recoveries and legal coordination — through one structured, compliant, and transparent system. We combine automation, data intelligence, and a nationwide field operations network to ensure scalable and ethical recoveries across unsecured loans, BNPL, SME credit, and B2B trade receivables.

We started Collectedge with a clear vision: to bring structure and accountability to an industry that has historically been fragmented. Lending in India has become digital and fast, but recoveries were still dependent on unorganized vendors, manual processes, and limited visibility. We saw the opportunity to build a reliable, compliant backbone that lenders could trust at scale.

In the past year, we have expanded our capabilities to offer our customers call-based recoveries, field operations, litigation support, and multiple channels of integrated communication including WhatsApp and automated reminders. In addition, we have continued to expand our partner network of verified agencies to allow for consistent and fast deployment of services across the country.

Our USPs are transparency, compliance, and scale. Every interaction is logged, monitored, and auditable. Lenders get real-time dashboards, case-level insights, field visibility, and complete process control. And because our model is success-linked, our incentives are aligned with outcomes, not activity. This makes Collectedge a trusted execution engine for lenders nationwide.

StartupTalky: What new services have been added in the past year? What is/are the USP/s of your service?

Ranjan Agarwal: In the last year, we’ve strengthened our offerings across the entire recovery lifecycle by deepening our call-based recovery operations with standardized workflows, expanding field operations through a curated nationwide partner network, and enhancing our digital reminder and communication channels across WhatsApp, SMS, and voice. We also introduced stronger litigation support for notices and legal workflows, along with a more structured dispute-resolution process for B2B receivables. What sets Collectedge apart is our commitment to end-to-end transparency where every borrower touchpoint is logged, recorded, and auditable, and a compliance-first execution framework that ensures every call and field visit strictly follows guidelines with continuous monitoring. Our nationwide scale allows verified field partners to deploy quickly across India, and our outcome-linked, success-based pricing model ensures complete alignment with lender objectives. This blend of structure, visibility, compliance, and on-ground execution is what differentiates Collectedge in the market.

StartupTalky: How has the industry you are in changed in recent years and how has Collectedge adapted to these changes?

Ranjan Agarwal: India’s credit landscape has expanded rapidly across retail lending, BNPL, SME finance, and digital credit products. While disbursements evolved into instant digital experiences, recoveries did not keep pace and remained manual, fragmented, and difficult to monitor. Lenders today need real-time visibility, compliance assurance, and scalable coverage across geographies.Collectedge adapted by building a managed marketplace of vetted recovery partners backed by standardized workflows, central dashboards, interaction monitoring, and strong quality controls. We introduced structured multi-channel outreach, strengthened our field operations capability, and layered compliance checks into every step of the process.As regulators push for borrower protection and ethical practices, the industry is clearly moving towards structured, transparent, and compliant recovery models. Collectedge is aligned to that shift and continues to expand capabilities that support responsible growth.

StartupTalky: What key metrics do you track to check the growth and performance of Collectedge?

Ranjan Agarwal: We track a comprehensive set of metrics that ensure consistent performance, strong compliance, and disciplined nationwide growth. On the portfolio side, we monitor resolution rates across DPD buckets, rollback and cure percentages, time-to-resolution, and channel-wise performance across digital, call, and field efforts. Operationally, we focus on agent productivity, successful field deployment rates, contact-to-resolution ratios, and timely dispute closure. Compliance remains central to our model, so interaction quality scoring, deviation flags, and guideline adherence are reviewed continuously. From a business standpoint, we evaluate monthly revenue run rate, portfolio expansion, client growth, and the scale of our partner network across cities. Together, these metrics help us maintain reliability, transparency, and operational consistency as we scale.

StartupTalky: What were the most significant challenges Collectedge faced in the past year and how did you overcome them?

Ranjan Agarwal: The biggest challenge was delivering consistent quality in an industry that has always been fragmented. Collections typically rely on small vendors with varying processes, making it hard to maintain uniform standards across states and borrower segments.

We solved this by building a vetted partner network with standardized onboarding, structured training, and centralized quality monitoring. Every agent now follows the same workflow and compliance framework, ensuring predictable execution across geographies.

Another challenge was establishing lender trust in a traditionally opaque process. We addressed this through real-time dashboards, transparent reporting, and full traceability for every call and field interaction.

Scaling field operations responsibly also required investment in monitoring tools and dispute-handling processes. Strengthening these systems helped us maintain compliance while expanding nationwide.

StartupTalky: What are the different strategies you use for marketing? Tell us about any growth hack that you pulled off.

Ranjan Agarwal: In collections, credibility matters more than loud marketing. Our approach focuses on trust-building and industry presence.

Our key strategies

• Thought leadership across lending and receivables
• Participation in NBFC and fintech industry forums
• Case studies demonstrating measurable outcomes
• Strong founder-led CXO engagement
• High referral-led growth from existing clients

Growth hack: We built an organized field recovery network early, something most players ignored. Lenders were struggling with fragmented field vendors, so offering a curated nationwide network solved an immediate pain point. This helped us onboard several large lenders quickly and became one of our strongest differentiators. Smooth onboarding and minimal operational friction also accelerated adoption.

StartupTalky: What are the important tools and software you use to run your business smoothly?

Ranjan Agarwal: Our operations run on an integrated internal ecosystem that brings complete structure and visibility to the collections process. We use a dedicated lender console for case management and reporting, along with an operations console that supports our partner agencies and internal teams. Our on-ground agents work through an agent mobile app and calling console that logs every interaction. Daily queues are prioritized through a segmentation engine, while interaction quality and compliance scoring helps monitor every borrower touchpoint. We also rely on integrated communication tools such as reminders, dialers, and WhatsApp messaging. All of this is supported by secure data pipelines with strict access controls, ensuring that every digital, call, or field action is traceable, measurable, and fully compliant.

StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see for future growth in your industry in India and the world? What kind of difference in market behavior have you seen between India and the world?

Ranjan Agarwal: India is one of the fastest-growing credit markets globally, but its recovery infrastructure is still evolving. As lending expands into deeper regions, lenders will need structured, compliant, and scalable partners for recoveries. Growth opportunities include:

• BNPL and digital lending recoveries
• SME credit and B2B receivables
• Early-stage risk interventions
• Legal and late-stage recoveries
• Expansion of on-ground coverage in semi-urban and rural regions

India vs Global: Global markets are more uniform with mature regulations and standardized borrower behavior. India, on the other hand, is diverse - repayment behavior, communication preferences, and local dynamics vary widely. Collections here require a blend of digital outreach, call efforts, and physical field visits. This complexity is exactly where structured platforms like Collectedge create long-term value.

StartupTalky: How are you using AI, whether in service delivery, internal processes, or customer experience, and what impact has it created?

Ranjan Agarwal: We use AI in three core layers to strengthen decision-making and ensure compliance:

• Segmentation & Prioritization: Models identify repayment intent, classify customers, and determine the right action,  reminder, call, or field visit.
• Quality & Compliance Monitoring: AI-driven scoring highlights tone issues, guideline deviations, and training needs. Every interaction is reviewed in real-time for quality.
• Efficiency & Insights: Automated summaries, multilingual transcription, and behavior patterns help managers evaluate large volumes of interactions quickly.

Impact:

• Higher recovery efficiency
• Stronger compliance governance
• Better borrower experience
• Faster resolution cycles
• Scalable and uniform execution AI enhances human execution, helping deliver consistent, compliant recoveries at scale.

StartupTalky: How do you plan to expand the Customers, service offering, and team base in the future?

Ranjan Agarwal: We are rapidly expanding our national field network, enabling lenders to deploy trained agents across India with standardized workflows.

We also plan to expand across the full recovery lifecycle,  early-stage interventions, call-based recoveries, field operations, and legal workflows, all through one unified platform.

Internally, we are investing heavily in training, compliance, and operational excellence to ensure that as we grow, quality and discipline remain consistent.

StartupTalky: One tip that you would like to share with another Service company founder?

Ranjan Agarwal: Focus on operational discipline before scale. In service businesses, trust is built through consistency, not speed. If your processes are structured, transparent, and reliable, customers stay longer, refer more, and become your biggest growth engine. Strong fundamentals compound faster than any marketing strategy.

Explore more Recap'25 interviews here.